Who Do the Ngimurok Say That They Are?: A Phenomenological Study of Turkana Traditional Religious Specialists in Turkana, Kenya

by Kevin P. Lines

Overview

How do missiologists describe the cosmologies of those that Christianity encounters around the world? Our descriptions often end up filtered through our own Western religious categories. Furthermore, indigenous Christians adopt these Western religious categories. This presents the problem of local Christianities, described by Kwame Bediako as those that "have not known how to relate to their traditional culture in terms other than those of denunciation or of separateness." Kevin Lines's phenomenological study of local religious specialists in Turkana, Kenya, not only challenges our Western categories by revealing a more authentic complexity of the issues for local Christians and Western missionaries, but also provides a model for continued use of phenomenology as a valued research method in larger missiological studies. Additionally, this study points to the ways that local Christians and traditional religious practitioners interpret Western missionaries through local religious categories. Clearly, missionaries, missiologists, anthropologists, and religious studies scholars need to do a much more careful job of studying and describing the contextually specific phenomena of traditional religious specialists before relying on meta-categories that come out of our Western theology or older overly simplified ethnographies. The research from this current study of Turkana religious specialists begins that process in the Turkana context and offers a model for future studies in contexts where traditional religion and Christianity intersect.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498298032
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	04/12/2018
Series:	American Society of Missiology Monograph Series , #35
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	284
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Kevin Lines is Professor of Intercultural Studies at Hope International University. He began serving as Executive Director of CMF International in 2017.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures xi

Acknowledgment xiii

1 Introduction to the Problem of Ngimurok 1

Introduction 1

A Research Problem 5

Outline of Book 10

Summary 11

2 Research Objectives, Theories and Methodologies 12

Research Objectives and Research Questions 13

Theoretical Framework 17

Delimitations and Limitations of the Study 36

Research Methodology 38

Significance of the Study 44

3 Definitions for the Study 45

Definition of Key Terms 45

Summary of Key Terms and Perspectives 65

4 A Phenomenological Description of Turkana Religious Specialists 66

Introduction 66

Different types of ngimurok presented by the research participants 74

Emuron of the Head who Dreams, the Emuron of God 76

Emuron of Intestines and Sandals 106

Emuron who Reads (Tobacco, Money) 112

Akatuwan 116

Summary of the Four Self-Identified Types of Ngimurok 121

Malevolent Traditional Ritual Specialists 125

Words used to Distinguish the Actions of the Emuron, Ekasuban, and Ekapilan 131

Other Traditional Ritual Specialists 132

Three Additional Religious Specialists (Contested) 133

Five Other Described Religious Specialists (Similar to Ngimurok) 134

Other Descriptive Themes 138

Other roles in the community 148

Chapter Conclusion 151

5 Specific Observed and Described Rituals and Ritual Objects of the Ngimurok 154

Observed and Described Rituals 154

Emuron Ritual Objects 170

Conclusion of the Chapter 173

6 What Turkana Ngimurok Say about Christians and What Turkana Christians say about Ngimurok: Ngimurok statements and a Turkana Christian Survey 174

Ngimurok Statements about Christians 175

A Turkana Christian Survey 179

7 Conclusions: Toward a New Approach to Turkana Religious Specialists Today 196

Overview of Accomplishments 197

Evaluating the Research Objectives 198

Further Missiological Implications 207

Suggestions for Future Research 209

Postscript 211

Appendix A Maps 213

Appendix B List of Interviews 214

Appendix C An Emuron Interview Model 215

Appendix D Rituals and Interviews Recorded on Video 217

Appendix E Photographs 220

Appendix F Glossary of Common Turkana Terms Related to Ngimurok Used in this Study 226

Appendix G Turkana Christian Survey Results

G.A: A Sample Survey Response (two pages) 230

G.B: Complete Survey Responses 232

G.C: Graphs of Key Survey Responses 249

Bibliography 259

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This is exactly the right question! Lines has avoided picking up what anthropology has already discarded—colonial imaginations such as religion, witch doctors, animism, chiefs and tribe—and instead goes on a true journey of discovery. After a decade of living and conducting research among the Turkana of Kenya, Lines knows that life is never as neat as it seems when parsed with outsider categories. He provides us with a nuanced, complex, and contested account that draws the reader into the world of the Turkana and their Christianity.”


—Michael A. Rynkiewich, Professor of Anthropology, Retired, Asbury Theological Seminary





“For Kevin Lines, missiological contextualization of other religious traditions is not just a theoretical idea, but a mission practice he has used with great effectiveness. His approach to understanding non-Christian religious specialists is the way forward to continued mission success in Africa—and around the world.”


—Terry Muck, Author of Why Study Religion?

Editorial Reviews

This is exactly the right question! Lines has avoided picking up what anthropology has already discarded—colonial imaginations such as religion, witch doctors, animism, chiefs and tribe—and instead goes on a true journey of discovery. After a decade of living and conducting research among the Turkana of Kenya, Lines knows that life is never as neat as it seems when parsed with outsider categories. He provides us with a nuanced, complex, and contested account that draws the reader into the world of the Turkana and their Christianity.”


—Michael A. Rynkiewich, Professor of Anthropology, Retired, Asbury Theological Seminary





“For Kevin Lines, missiological contextualization of other religious traditions is not just a theoretical idea, but a mission practice he has used with great effectiveness. His approach to understanding non-Christian religious specialists is the way forward to continued mission success in Africa—and around the world.”


—Terry Muck, Author of Why Study Religion?

From the Publisher